Johannesburg - The split of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) from the Department of Communications was given the thumbs-up by MPs this week.
Chairwoman of the portfolio committee on communications Joyce Moloi-Moropa said the removal of the GCIS from the department would make it more productive and able to communicate the message of government much more effectively.
The GCIS will now also have its own director-general, a powerful and much-coveted post. In the past, the department’s director-general doubled up as the government’s chief spokesman. But it was decided the GCIS would still report to the Minister of Communications.
In the reconfigured cabinet of President Jacob Zuma, he split the Department of Communications into two, resulting in the establishment of the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, and Communications, led by different ministers.
While the department of telecommunications and postal services existed under former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, it was collapsed into a single department of communications, handling both regulation of the ICT sector and government posts and telecoms.
However, Zuma decided to revive the posts and telecoms portfolio last year, which is now headed by Siyabonga Cwele.
Moloi-Moropa said she fully supported this decision.
“The fact that the GCIS is given a priority, for us this is critical. We give it (a) thumbs-up. Now it will be focused with its own director-general running it,” she said.
This would improve the level of communication in getting out that critical government message on service delivery.
She warned there should be clear lines of accountability between the GCIS head and the director-general of communications and hoped this would be done in time to avoid territorial battles.
The role of the portfolio committee would not change and it would have to oversee the performance of all its departments.
“We need to oversee that they are implementing their plans effectively,” said Moloi-Moropa. She said she had noted exchanges in the portfolio committee this week between the DA and ANC MPs on the role of the department.
She said sometimes the role of the GCIS was misunderstood. There was a need for a department or agency that takes the government’s message to citizens.
“The government has a responsibility to show what we have done,” said Moloi-Moropa.
Political Bureau